Arthur Hardin
If you were to ask a WSSU student who Arthur Hardin is, he or she might respond, ” He’s the guy that helps you meet your community service commitment. Or, he’s the guy that get’s you involved in stuff in the community.” They would be right – he’s the guy.
As coordinator of the Community Service Program in WSSU’s Office of Career Services, Hardin has introduced hundreds of students to opportunities to serve in the local community and around the state. He is very passionate about his job and operates as a quiet servant leader. For example, he led the drive to register thousands of first-time voters on WSSU’s campus and ensured their registrations were valid. He also encouraged them to use the early voting site at the Anderson Center.
He amassed an army of student volunteers to help in building a Habitat for Humanity house which will be unveiled in December. Under his leadership, WSSU students volunteer as tutors and mentors in the local schools, sponsor food and clothing drives, help to raise funds for the Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina, and participated in projects to help the homeless. Because of these activities and others, WSSU was recently named an Honor Roll member to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll by the Corporation for National and Community Service for exemplary service efforts and service to disadvantaged youth.
“I’m most proud of the fact that the efforts of our students, faculty, and staff were recognized,” said Hardin. “For along time we were in the shadows, our students weren’t getting a lot of recognition. I am also very appreciative of the university for supporting this office.”
But before Hardin became WSSU’s coordinator of Community Service, he led a different life. Did you know that he spent 13 years as an account representative selling airtime for WXII-TV? Or, that he served as president of Junior Achievement of Northwest North Carolina for three years, and that he served for four years with the Housing Authority of Winston-Salem. That is where he says he gained his knowledge of what volunteer services meant to community agencies.
As passionate as he has been about all the jobs he has done in his career, nothing comes close to his passion for sports. He says since the day he walked on the court as a member of his high school basketball team, sports has been important to him. So when he came to Winston-Salem from Huntington, WV, where he had been in television sales, he began attending Friday night high school sporting events. “If there was a game, I was there,” said Hardin. He decided to make a career out of it by becoming an athletic official. He began his career in 1983 by officiating basketball games for four years, then later football games. He is so well respected among his officiating peers that in July 2007, he assumed the presidency of the Southern Conference Football Officials Association. Just the month before he had selected as a leader for the Winston-Salem clinic of the North State Football Officials Association (the local high school officiating group).
His star in this area continues to rise. In December 2007 he officiated the NCAA Football Championship Series national semi-final game between the University of Delaware and Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Ill.
In March 2008 Hardin was selected to officiate the 2-A Boys State Championship between Canton Pisgah High School and West Bladen High School. And just recently, Oct. 27, 2008, Hardin was elected in-coming vice president of the Triad Basketball Officials Association.
Hardin, a native of Beckley, WV, is married to a native of Winston-Salem. Her name is Ayana. Though the couple have no children, Hardin says they do have a “spastic” spaniel named Chili that keeps life interesting around their house.
